Ice tray



NOV. 19, 1940. c R CARNEY 2,222,401

ICE TRAY Filed 'Aug. 11, I939 INVENTOR 'B fal /fir? Calvary.

CZM 9" Arrok ays,

Patented Nov. V19, 1940 10E may Oliflord R. Carney, Detroit, Mich. Application August 11, 1939. semi No. 289,517 10 Claims. (01. 62-1085 Y This invention relates to ice trays and more particularly to means for releasing ice trays or pans from the freezing compartment of an ice forming machine.

Heretofore considerable difficulty has been experienced in effecting the removal of the ice tray or pan from the freezingcompartment because of thefact that a thin film of moisture, between the bottom of the tray and the supporting surface of the refrigerating compartment, freezes whereupon it is impossible to remove the tray from the supporting surface until a suf-.

ficient force is applied to break the ice bond.

An object of this invention is to provide means whereby the film of ice between the bottom of k the ice forming tray and the may be.readily broken.

supporting surface Another object of the invention is to provide readily accessible manually operable means whereby a portion of the tray may be cammed upwardly to break the film of ice between the tray and the supporting surface.

A further object of the invention is to provide hinged actuating means to break the tray loose from the supporting surface 1 compartment.

:1 the refrigerating porting surface.

Yet a still further object of the invention is to provide improved manually operable release means having novel stop means to prevent the release mechanism from interfering with replacing the tray in the freezing compartment of the refrigerating unit.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following detailed depose to the subjoined claims. In the drawing wherein similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the several views: Fig. l is a side elevation, of an ice tray embodying the partly in section, present invention,

showing the releasing mechanism in the inoperative position;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation 'of the device illustrated in Fig. l;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sec tional view similar to a portion of Fig. 1 showing the release mechanism in the operative position:

Fig. 4 is a front elevation similar to Fig. 2 showing a modified form of the invention;

Fig. 5 is a side sectional elevation similar to a portion of Fig. 1, showing a still further modified form of the invention;

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5 showing a further modified form of the invention, and

Fig. 7 is a front elevation of the form of the invention illustrated in Fig. 6.

Before explaining in detail the present invention it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of, parts illustrated in the accompanying drawing, since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also it is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation, and it is not intended to limit the invention claimed herein beyond the requirements of the prior art.

Referring now to Figs. 1 to 3, which illustrate one desirable embodiment of the invention, an ice tray or pan it having a bottom wall II, and side walls I3, is positioned on a supporting surface I2 of a freezing compartment or evaporator. A generally transversely extending inverted channel it is formed in the bottom wall II adjacent the front end wall It of the tray. The

' side walls l3 are formed with downwardly extending rigidifying lips l5, and the front wall I6 is provided witha downwardly directed rigidi- V fying lip i8. An actuating lever 20 may be pivotally mounted to the lip It as by pins 22 as illustrated, and preferably includes a forwardly disposed manually operable hook portion 24. A generally downwardly and rearwardly extending lever 26 is pivotally mounted to the lever 20 by a pin 28 and is provided with a camming surface 30 adapted to lie within a portion of the transversely extending inverted channel M as illustrated. A stop 32 carried by or formed in the lever 20 is adapted to engage a'portion of the lever 26' to prevent undesirable downward movement of the lever 26 relative to the tray Ill. The lip portion ii is providedwith a downwardly extending directed portion to act as a manually operable hook portion 24 may be grasped and pulled forwardly in the direction to remove the tray from the freezing compartment. Forward movement of the hook portion 24 op- 6 erates through the pivotal connections 22 and 28 to exert a forwardlydirected force on the lever 26 to move the camming surface 30 forwardly within the channel portion l4 of the tray to engage the surface 36 of the tray thereby 10 camming it upwardly to break the bond between the tray I ll and the surface of the supporting member l2 as more clearly illustrated in Fig. 3. When the frozen contact between the tray l0 and the surface I2 is broken, the tray l0 maybereadily removed from the freezing compartment by a continued outward pull on the hook portion 24. To replace the tray I6 into the freezing compartment, the tray I0 may be grasped at the forward portion of the lip 18 and the lever 24 moved in the clockwise direction as viewed in Figs, 1 to 3 toward the tray whereupon the stop 32 urges the lever 26 to move the camming'surface 36 into the channel l4, whereupon the tray may be readily slid into the freezing compartment as illustrated in Fig. 1.

The modified embodiments illustrated in Figs.

4, 5 and 6 and 7 are similar in many respects to the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 1 .to 3;

corresponding parts have therefore been given 30 corresponding reference numbers with the addition of 100 in each case.

In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 4, the

transversely extending channel l4 of Fig. 1 is replaced by the short transversely extending channel I56 interposed between the side walls 3 of the tray H0. In this embodiment, the lever I26, and the surface I36 are proportioned to be received within the channel H4 formed in the lower portion of the tray H6. The opera- 40 tion of this embodiment is substantially similar to that of the embodiment illustrated in Figs.

In Fig. 5 embodiment, the upwardly extendin front wall portion 260 of the tray is provided with a downwardly extending actuating portion 262 which terminates in agenerally transversely extending camming surface 264 adapted to be received within the channel portion 2 of the tray 2l6. The actuating portion 262 is provided with a handle 266 which may be pulled forwardly to enable the camming surface 264 to engage the surface 236 of the channel 2 to release the tray 2l6 from the supporting surface 2l2. In this embodiment the segment 264 is maintained in nested relation within the channel 2 by the resiliency of the walls 260 and lip 262 whereby the tray 2I0. may be readily inserted into the freezing compartment of the refrigerating The embodiment illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7 is similar in many respects to that of 5.

It will be noted however that a manually operable member or handle 310 is formed by shearing a portion of the metal of the portion 262 and rolling it upwardly to form the handle member. In this embodiment a pair of spaced cam ming surfaces 364 are provided on each side of the handle 316.

I claim:

1. An ice tray having a bottom wall adapted to rest on a supponting surface, side and end walls, a generally transversely extending channel formed in the bottom wall adjacent one of the end walls, and means carried by said end 78 wall adapted to engage the bottom wall and supporting surface to separate the bottom wall from the supporting surface.

2. An ice, tray having a bottom wall adap to rest on a supporting surface, side and end walls, a generally transversely extending chan- 5 nel formed in the bottom wall adjacent one of the end walls, and manually operable means carried by said end wall and having a member adapted to lie within said channel to engage the bottom wall and supporting surface to separate 10 the bottom wall from me supporting surface.

3. An ice tray having a bottom wall adapted to rest on a supporting surface, an end wall, a generally transversely extending channel portion between the bottom wall and end wall, and longi- 16 tudinally movable means carried by the end wall and adapted to lie within said channel to engage a portion of the channel and the supporting surface to release the bottom wall from the supporting surface. 20

4. An ice tray having a bottom wall adapted to rest on a supporting surface, an angularly inclined end wall, a generally transversely extending channel between'the bottom wall and end wall, and means pivotally mounted on the 25 end wall having a portion adapted to lie within said channel to engage a portion of the channel and the supporting surface to release the bottom wall from the supporting surface.

5. An ice tray having a bottom wall adapted 30 I,

to rest on a supporting surface; a transversely extending channel portion formed in the bottom wall adjacent one of its ends, an end wall carried by the bottom wall adjacent the channel portion, a camming member adapted to lie within said 35 channel portion, and manually operable means pivotally mounted to the end wall and to said camming member to actuate the camming member to release the tray from the supporting surface. 40 6. An ice tray having a bottom wall adapted f to rest on a supporting surface, a transversely carried by the bottom wall adjacent the channel 45 portion, a camming member adapted to-lie within said channel portion, manually operable means pivotally mounted to the end wall and to said camming member to actuate the camming member to release the tray from the supporting sur- 6o face, and stop means to limit the movement ofthe camming member and the manually operable means.

'7. An ice tray having a bottom wall adapted to rest upon a supporting surface, an end wall, 55 an inverted generally transversely extending channel section between the bottom wall and the end wall, a longitudinally movable camming member carriedby the end wall and adapted to lie within said channel to. exert a force to separate the tray and supporting surface, and manually operable means to move the camming member longitudinally of the tray. v

8. An ice tray having a bottom wall adapted to rest upon a supporting surface, an angularly inclined end wall, an inverted generally transversely extending channel section between the bottom wall and the end wall, spacedcamming surfaces carried by the end wall and adapted to lie within said channel to exert a force to sep- 70 arate the tray and supporting surface, and manually operable means between the spaced cam I ming surfaces to actuate the camming surfaces to release the tray from the supporting surface.

9. An ice tray having a bottom wall adapted Ill 10. An ice tray having a bottom wall adapted to rest on a supporting surface, a transversely extending channel portion formed in the bottom wall adjacent one of its ends, an end wall carried by the bottom wall adjacent the channel portion, a camming member adapted to lie within said channel portion, and manually operable means associated with the end wall and camming member to actuate the camming member to release the tray from the supporting surface. 10

CLIFFORD R. CARNEY. 

